Del Rio’s new restaurant, The Good Bar, should be called A Family Affair.
The restaurant, owned and run by Dorian Bosquez Guadarrama, is using her husband, Jose Carlos Guadarrama’s recipes. When José Carlos finds time from his schedule, he will make 
rounds to see how the kitchen crew is progressing. He took care of training the kitchen staff and still does so when he has time off to help them learn the full menu.
Meanwhile, their children are waiting and bussing tables. Mom, also known as Dorian, conducts the symphony like a conductor as she tries to keep everything humming along.
If you visit their Facebook page. it’s run by Dorian’s sister, Annaliz, based out of Austin but helping her sister’s restaurant get its name out.
Her brother, Mario along with Carlitos and José Carlos himself, helped her fine tune the restaurant and give it a new look and Dorian’s mom also helped train the staff.
Jose Carlos’ parents “are the best cheerleaders and supporters anyone can ask for “ Dorian said.
Dorian said that Jose Carlos had a reputation among her friends as the go to chef, always asking her, “Can Jose Carlos make this or that dish,” when they were invited to parties.
“He always cooked too much so I would always be giving food away and that’s how his cooking was introduced to so many people,” Dorian said. “So, when a close friend asked if José Carlos would cater for a small party and other acquaintances started asking and saying that we should open a restaurant again, we thought, you know, maybe they’re right.”
The menu is limited to about half of the items initially. “We want to give the staff a chance to get those items down, before we add more,” Dorian said.
They named the restaurant The Good Bar because they wanted to have the best salad bar in town.
The restaurant only opens at lunch. “We want to make sure the staff has everything down before we expand more,” Dorian said. When they do expand to dinner, they’ll probably start with Fridays and expand from there.
The biggest concern from my perspective was locale. It’s in a restaurant graveyard, 703 E. Gibbs St, where more restaurants have died than thrived, in a Pizza-Hut-turned-Chinese-restaurant-turned-Italian-now-called-The-Good-Bar. However, if any restaurant is going to succeed there, it’s going to be The Good Bar.
They’ve given it a new look by yanking up the carpet and putting down tile, a fresh paint job, new look tables all work together to give it a different feel.
They feature an eclectic menu that has a little Mexican, little Cajun, Italian and a little bit of everything.
They have two of the more unique appetizers I’ve had in Del Rio, an Ahi Tuna tower and Jerky tower. The jerky tower is dried beef, Pico de Gallo, corn, black beans and avocado. It had a really good flavor that almost tasted like a meaty salsa.
The Ahi Tuna tower wasn’t tried on this trip, but it will be at the top of the list next time.
The Seafood boil was unique, more like a jambalaya to me. I’ve never had a seafood boil with rice, but I don’t care what you called this one, it was delicious.
My fingers are crossed the Guadarramas can reverse the 703 East Gibbs curse and thrive in this location. If they don’t, Del Rio will really be missing out.Del Rio’s new restaurant,
